"The petition says that Cohen spoke to only two of the 20 potential witnesses brought to his attention by his co-counsel and an investigator. It says the witnesses included some who would have testified that the women spoke favorably of the sexual relationships they had with Masterson. And they included psychological and pharmacological experts who would have testified about the effects of alcohol and drugs on memory."
"The court filing says there was "unexpected and unreasonable failure of trial counsel to present any of the mountain of exculpatory evidence" that had been amassed by Masterson's pretrial attorney, Shawn Holley, and the result was a violation of his constitutional rights. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo declined to delay Masterson's first trial to accommodate Holley's representation of former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer against his own allegations of sexual misconduct. Cohen then took over as lead attorney."
Danny Masterson filed a habeas corpus petition with California's 2nd District Court of Appeal seeking to vacate his 2023 retrial convictions for raping two women and his 30-years-to-life prison sentence. He alleges trial lawyer Philip Cohen failed to call key witnesses and introduce exculpatory evidence assembled by pretrial attorney Shawn Holley, including witnesses who would have said the women spoke favorably about sexual relationships with him and experts on alcohol and drug effects on memory. Masterson contends the trial judge showed bias against the Church of Scientology by allowing constitutional intrusion into doctrine and misinterpretation of scripture; his first trial ended in a mistrial and Cohen succeeded Holley as lead counsel.
Read at ABC7 Los Angeles
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